Oct 26, 2012

What Happened To Re-Recon And Senior Attorney Reviews?

What's going on with re-recon (also known as informal remands) and senior attorney reviews? These have been efforts to cope with Social Security's backlog in hearing disability cases. Non-Administrative Law Judge personnel have done reviews after a request for hearing to see if the cases can be paid. My impression earlier in the year was that these cases were being reviewed under a standard that guaranteed that few would be approved. It seemed close to being a waste of time. Now, it seems like these reviews have slowed down. What's going on? Lack of staff to even do reviews? A decision that these reviews weren't worth the effort? Even more restrictive standards for approving a claim?

Good heavens, how many times has the agency done this? Send cases back to the DDS's that seem to be "obvious pays"? I'm a geezer and can hardly remember how often this has been done under numerous "initiatives." A few get paid, but frankly, OTR decisions are usually quicker. It's mostly smoke and mirrors for upper management: Oh look, we are REALLY doing something. Sigh.